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Hospitalists round on Wall Street

IPC-The Hospitalist Company, which deploys more than 600 hospitalists in 16 states, intends to sell up to $105 million worth of stock in an initial public offering. It's the first IPO in the burgeoning hospitalist industry and a flashback to the boom-to-bust phenomenon of publicly traded physician practice management companies, like PhyCor and MedPartners.

In its registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission, IPC, which is based in North Hollywood, CA, said it would use some of the IPO proceeds to acquire more hospitalist practices. Its competitors include other hospitalist companies with multistate operations and emergency-medicine management companies that employ hospitalists. IPC claims to be the largest player in the hospitalist industry, based on revenues, patient encounters, and affiliated doctors.